Ottawa County Inmates Moved Again After Jail Problems

Only News On 6 was there as dozens of Ottawa County inmates and their belongings left Rogers County Friday afternoon.

Ottawa County Sheriff Jeremy Floyd told News On 6 inmates had been moved to nearby counties after a fire broke out at his jail Oct. 19.

“This was taking my own precautionary action, and, of course, the jail standards would not have allowed us to keep the inmates in there anyway once we made notification to them,” Floyd explained.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said he agreed to take 47 inmates in late November for a few weeks at no charge, but it's caused problems for his office.

“It was like the first day of school and hotel from hell,” said Walton.

Walton said now even with 34 Ottawa County inmates left after two months, his jail is over capacity.

Walton added he's relieved the Washington County Jail will take them after what he calls disappointing treatment.

“It's extremely disturbing to me when Sheriff Floyd won't communicate where he's at and when the repairs will be done,” said Walton. “We've had to call and ask and beg for information on when you think this could possibly be.”

Related Story: Ottawa County Inmates Moved To Rogers County Jail 

Floyd told News On 6 his undersheriff tried to communicate with Walton’s undersheriff as much as possible.

“We got to the point where, at this point, we don't know because we've told you, ‘This, this and this date, but we've been wrong, so I'm not going to give you a date until we actually know for sure when we're going to do all this transaction,” said Floyd.

The Miami Fire Chief told News On 6 the cause of the fire at Ottawa County Jail was accidental with some heat tape in the attic melting.

Floyd said there have also been issues with the fire suppression system, and the repairs should be done by next week.

Rogers County is charging $27 a day for each inmate, which is based on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' rates.

The invoice for December alone was $24,543.

Rogers County said it has not been paid and that they were told Ottawa County will send a check in February.

Ottawa County also has inmates in Delaware and Craig Counties.